BLOG TOUR: Sweet Soul (Sweet Home, #4; Carillo Boys, #3) by Tillie Cole

Title: Sweet Soul #4

Series: Can be read as a standalone

Author: Tillie Cole

Release Date: December 15, 2015

Rating: 4 stars

Cliffhanger:. No

One shy lost soul.
One silent lonely heart.
One love to save them both.

Life has never been easy for twenty-year-old Levi Carillo. The youngest of the Carillo boys, Levi is nothing like his older brothers. He isn’t dark in looks or intimidating to everyone he meets. In fact, he’s quite the opposite. Haunted by a crippling shyness and the tragic events of his past, Levi spends his days with his head buried in his books, or training hard for his college football team. Too timid to talk to girls, Levi stays as far away as possible and completely on his own… until he saves the life of a troubled pretty blonde, a troubled pretty blonde that might just be the exception to his rule.

Elsie Hall is homeless. Or at least that’s all anyone ever sees. Everyday is a fight for survival on the cold streets of Seattle, everyday a struggle to find food and keep warm. Alone in life—a life that’s dangerous and cruel—her will to keep going is an ever-losing battle. In her world of silence, Elsie has given up hope that her life will contain anything but constant struggle and pain… until the beautiful boy she has severely wronged comes to her rescue at precisely the right time.

New Adult novel—contains sexual situations and mature topics. Suited for ages 18 and up.



[ Yes (hide spoiler)]

Moving my hand, I ran my fingers over the brown beads. “Why do you hold these, Mamma? You always have them with you. Right now, you’re clutching them real tight.”
Mamma sighed and brought the rosary to her chest. “I use them to pray to Mother Mary. She gives me strength, mia luna. I pray to her for strength.” Mamma’s voice cracked again and I tried to think hard. I tried to think why she needed strength.
Blinking, a thought came to me and I asked, “Is it Austin and Axel? Do you pray for them? Because of the Heighters?”
Mamma sighed and ran her finger down my cheek. “Always, mia luna. I always pray for them. For what they do each night for that gang.”
I shook my head, knowing there was something else. “But what—”
“Shh,” Mamma whispered. She then held up the rosary and placed it in my hand. She curled her hand around mine and pressed the beads into my palm. “Levi, you take these now. I want you to have these. I want you to keep them for strength. For the strength you will need someday soon.”
I frowned and shook my head. “No, Mamma. They’re yours. I’m strong with you around. I don’t need these.”
Mamma’s head dropped, and she took a deep breath.
“Mamma?” I questioned. She was acting real strange.
Mamma wiped her cheeks and a sad smile spread on her lips. “Va bene, mia luna. I’ll keep them for now. Grazie. Always thinking of your mamma. But one day, when… when I’m not here, you keep these with you. I want you to remember that these are yours. You are not your brothers, Levi. You are kind and shy, not hard and boisterous, ready to fight the world. You are my quiet baby boy. My sweet, sweet soul.”
“I’m not weak,” I pushed, hating that I wasn’t like my brothers. Axel and Austin were strong and tough. I wanted to be just like them.

Mamma pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Never, Levi. You are a Carillo boy after all. But you are different from Austin and Axel. They are alike in so many ways—hot headed and tough, hard on the outside until they let you in. You are the timid one, the gentle brother—inside and out. You are the one to carry his heart on his sleeve. You are the one who watches silently from afar and loves with all his soul. ” Mamma huffed, and said, “Whoever you end up with, my son, whoever claims your heart, will be a very special girl indeed.” Her finger stroked my cheek. “So much love, mia luna. You will love with your whole being, and it will be forever. You could not love in any other way.”

Sweet Soul is another very emotional and intense story by Tillie Cole. She has yet another time captured on the paper all of those… feels; the good, the bad, the ugly… It was, at times heart wrenching to read about yet.. I was so invested into the characters’ lives stories, in their pain and hopes and dreams that I just couldn’t stop myself from reading even though it hurt me in many ways.

Levi Carillo is different than Austin and Axel, his tough as nails big brothers. Levi’s gentle, loving… shy. He has a good, golden heart and is just not interested in things most twenty year olds are. He doesn’t party, he has never kissed a girl… He’s just a little bit lonely and broken. Missing his mother. Trying to find happiness. When he meets homeless, sick girl a little bit younger than him, his instincts and empathy kick in and he persuades Austin and Lexi to help her.

Elsie and Levi were both very complex and complicated characters.I will admit that this novel, although exceptionally sweet in some moments, left me quite open and venerable. Some subjects had hit me more than others.

"Telling stories of love, he brought to her life
A moment by his side: no pain, no strife"

This book is full of heavy issues – bullying, homelessness, suicide attempts, loneliness. Beautiful and harsh, bittersweet. Yet I loved it.

I was sad to reach the ending and say goodbye to the characters. Sweet Home series gave me many hours of blissful reading. I am not sure if I am ready to let it go.

All in all, Tillie Cole is superb writer! In my opinion every single story she’s written down is exceptional and unique in its own way. Sweet Soul is no different. I highly recommend picking it up if you are looking for a romantic story that will get you thinking about life in general, cruelty and why people hurt others. This was very rough, raw and honest love story.

”Words are the worst kind of ammunition, Levi. Physical pain fades in time, but bullets of cruelty forever penetrate the soul.”

Amazon & USA Today Best Selling Author, Tillie Cole is a Northern girl through and through. She originates from a place called Teesside on that little but awesomely sunny (okay I exaggerate) Isle called Great Britain. She was brought up surrounded by her English rose mother — a farmer’s daughter, her crazy Scottish father, a savagely sarcastic sister and a multitude of rescue animals and horses.

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Blog Tour: Floured by Lane Martin.

Title: Floured

Author: Lane Martin

Release Date: Nov 12, 2015

Find on Goodreads

Emily Barnes likes things measured and timed, just like any baker. When she loses the apartment that she needs to run her home-based muffin business, she's faced with a choice: couch surfing at her very loud best friends' separated by thin walls or house sitting an otherwise empty Upper East Side luxury apartment overlooking Central Park. Obviously it’s a no-brainer for this smart cookie.

Declan Hayes is used to people asking things of him and saying no. However, for Maggie, his parent’s cook and housekeeper, he would do just about anything, including going over to his parent’s apartment to check on her pseudo niece who is staying there. His plan was to get in and get out, but the second he saw her, something changed. Something about her sparked the normally cold and dismal place to life; she made it warm and inviting. He finally understood the phrase “there’s no place like home.”

Can Emily and Declan trust the timing of their lives or adjust the lens from which they see them?

Hope, faith, trust and...love?

Will these things be enough for Emily and Declan to get the one thing they both never thought they needed in life?

It’s a good thing they are “Floured” because life is about to get sticky.

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“He seems so perfect, Nat, but then he says things that confuse me.”

“Like?”

“He asked me to forgive him and said this was all new to him, and Marissa acted like she was a jealous ex or something. I don’t understand it. When I asked him if they dated, he said they had a “history” but that he wouldn’t call it dating.”

“Maybe they just bumped fuzzies in the wine cellar.”

“Did you really just say that?”

“What would you like me to say? They shagged, boinked, screwed, banged, humped, or fucked? Take your pick.”

“How much time a day do you spend on Urban Dictionary?”

“What has my bride to be said now? Do I need to wash her mouth out?” Gabe asked as he approached us. It was sweet that my two best friends were checking up on me.

“Oh, baby, you know you love this dirty little mouth.”

“God, do you two need a room?” I asked as they practically began to maul each other. “I need to grab a few things and head back to the apartment for a nap.”

“Is that code for something else?” Gabe asked. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.

“No, Gabe. I really need to go back to the apartment and get a few hours of sleep so that I can get ready for tomorrow.”

“Okay, but don’t forget about me, and it’s not too late to change your mind about coming to my parents tomorrow. You know the invitation is always open.”

“It’s all good, and I could never forget about you.” We said our goodbyes and I left.

I’m not sure if I walked or floated into the apartment. After placing my grocery bags in the kitchen, I headed back to bed. A fresh arrangement of flowers was on sitting on the nightstand. I was thankful that I had taken the time to remove one of the Bachelor Button’s from the arrangement to dry before I left. The faint scent of apple filled the room. The flowers were delicate and varied in color from white to pink. I quickly opened the card and read.

To the promise of more to come – Dec 

I never thought that I would write a novel, although my English teacher my freshman year in college told me that he would hunt me down if I wasn’t published by the time I was thirty. Well, thirty came and went. I was busy being a wife and working mother of two, and nobody came looking for me.

I doubt my sister thought she was about to change my life forever when she got me a book of “mommy porn” for my birthday in 2012, but that’s exactly what she did. After reading the first book in the trilogy, I rushed out and got the other two books. I became obsessed and read the series several times before learning about Fanfiction. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get enough. The idea fascinated me and I thought, “I can do that.” I was a nervous wreck when I posted my first story, a one shot about my new favorite couple. One story lead to another and then another. My readers encouraged me to write something that was all mine, so that‘s what I did. Thank you to everyone who told me that I could do it. It wouldn’t have been possible without you.

I love reading, writing, traveling, and spending time with my family.  Thank you for going on this journey with me.

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Lane Martin - Floured

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Blog Tour: Pieces of One by SVC Ricketts

Book Tour: Pieces of One 

Author: SVC Ricketts 

Date: June 22 – July 3 

Release Date: June 18, 2015 

Hosted by: SBB Promotions

Two men want me and I, them. Simple, right? Not like this.

For over two years, I’ve been dealing with a pain in the ass MY way.

Separately.

She has her life and I have mine. They don’t intermingle. It’s the only way to keep things rational. But now she’s done something monumentally stupid and the only way to untangle myself from her mess is to live life in her shoes. Me, on the run in five inch stilettos. Great.

My name is Trista Dividir. I have Dissociative Identity Disorder and Marvy is my other personality, my alter.

To get my life back, I lie, I cheat, and I fall for both of her lovers. Little do I know, I am not the only liar.

Did I mention I have another alter? Yeah, I didn’t know about her either.

Book one in a three part romantic suspense series with a smattering of smexy in between. In the end, you’ll find your HEA…maybe.

Due to mature content and excessive whatever, this is a recommended read for age 18+.

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SVC Ricketts is a Contemporary Romance author and professional smart alec (self-professed). Her work has been recognized by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and was selected as a finalist for the 2013 PNWA Literary Competition in the Romance category.

Raised between Southern California and Oahu, she moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1993 and although she loves it here, her heart belongs to the Islands - it always will. When she's not in, what she loving calls "book-mode," she multitasks her life between her hilarious adult special needs daughter, super smexy husband of 11 years, two dogs, and sweating out her stress in a hot yoga studio.

      

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Blog Tour, Giveaway & Eliza's Review: Flawed by Francette Phal

Blood.

That's the only memory he carries from a childhood he does not remember. And now it is all he knows. Blood is his life.

Knox Bishop has done a lot of horrible things, all at the command of the man who holds his leash. It's a matter of loyalty for him. Allegiance to the man who saved his life when he was a child. So he goes where he is needed and does what he is told. He tortures. He kills. He kills. He tortures. It is an unrelenting cycle that he constantly craves and can never quite satisfy.

Until her.

Eighteen year old Lacey Barnes distributes her assets to fund her dreams. Medical school is the end game and she is determined to get there by any means necessary. But a family member's careless mistake derails her plans and now she must pay a price in order to save him.

She goes to Knox willingly offering him the only valuable thing she has. Herself. In doing so he allows her into his world, a world filled with darkness but rather than being scared it intrigues her. It lures her, calls to something in her that she hadn't known existed until he awakened it.

Every bit of his flaws is reflected in her and Knox will do anything to keep her in the darkness with him.

 

Knox

I’m not what you would call normal. The word has no meaning to me. But I’ve been pretending to act normal. It’s something I’ve been practicing since I’ve been aware of the thrum and its significance in my life. I was seven when I first heard the lullaby. Second grade, just before recess. It happened in a squall. Nothing and then all at once. I remember everything about that day. The bell rang and the other children went to play. Not me. Never me. I always stayed behind, mostly by choice, but never contested because the other children thought I was weird. I think maybe they unconsciously knew that I was lacking something fundamental. Something they all had and I didn’t, and maybe even never had at all. Whatever it was, I was alienated, excluded from their games. But I couldn’t say it bothered me. I was indifferent to it. Katia would sometimes play with me. Yuri’s youngest daughter, my adoptive sister, kept me company when she wasn’t with her own friends. But she’d been home sick that day.

In the small classroom with its oversized, rainbow-colored letters hanging over the chalkboard and tiled number blocks littering the carpeted floor, I sat in the beanbag chair staring fixatedly at the class pet. Sweet Ms. Devon always stayed with me but she’d left for a moment. A moment to heat her lunch. A moment to speak to a fellow staff member in the teachers’ lounge. But it’d been a moment too long for me. The noise in my head had been too loud. The urge too strong. The pink-eyed little rabbit, Mr. Apples, and the yellow pair of scissors sitting blades down in Ms. Devon’s “Best Teacher” mug had been too much of a temptation for me to resist.

The pounding of my heart. The lullaby and the thrum. The latch had given way beneath my shaking fingers, soaked with apprehension and anticipation. The struggle. The frantic movement of something living, something warm, with the same accelerated heartbeat as mine grappling for life. Desperate for freedom even while knowing the inevitable hand of death loomed was intoxicating. The thrill, the excitement, the sweet seductive power. I swam in it. Like too much candy on Halloween. Too much ice cream in the summer. It had been a quick death for Mr. Apples. It had been crude. Amateurish. But ever so effective in quieting the discord of my mind.

Poor, sweet Ms. Devon came to find me on the floor of the overly-bright classroom. Huddled on the floor, covered in Mr. Apples. She’d been one to smile a lot. But I stole her smile that day and replaced it with horror instead. Her pretty features contorted like a Kabuki mask.

[ n/a (hide spoiler)]

To say I enjoyed this read is an understatement. Francette Phal emotionally took me further than I was willing to go without being prepared. I read the blurb and although it read dark, I wasn't prepared for how dark the story would go. I loved it and I don't know how to feel about that.

I am not weak. I have never been weak. I fight. Despite the odds, I always fight.

Lacey is an 18 year old girl who lives a desperate life, she's a survivor and does what she needs to with the little she has. With a mother and brother in name only, her misplaced need to protect them results in her being placed in cold, uncaring clutches of Knox.
Lacey is one my favourite characters by far. She is loyal to those who don't deserve it, sacrificing herself when she should be protected. She's a fighter when most would be broken. I felt her trepidation, her fear, her horror and gave her my tears. I also felt her inner turmoil, her confusion, her want.

I know I’m built differently, everything in me has been arranged backwards. My thought patterns are abnormal. Emotions blunted. I never understood why people feel the need to make connections.

Knox is quite possibly insane, I felt true conflict when it came to my feelings towards him. He is not kind, he is not patient, he feels nothing and disturbingly I wanted more. I didn't enjoy the things he did but I did enjoy being inside his head, ironically I found it calmer than the chaos he brought. The small glimpse we get of his past gives me hope that he's not lost and his action at the end have me surprisingly championing him.

There isn't much that takes place behind closed doors, as readers we are exposed to it all. As much as it was hard to take at times, I rejoice in the commitment the author displayed in her characters. It was a dark read and she made no allowances. I'm excited and nervous to see where the story goes from here, I know it won't be easy on frazzled nerves but I can't wait all the same.

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Francette lives in Massachusetts with her amazingly supportive husband of ten years and her darling two year old son. Reading amazing books has led her to writing and she’s dabbled in fan-fiction before self-publishing her own works. She’s constantly thinking up new stories to write and does her best work when music is playing in the background. Romance is where she’s most comfortable but she hopes to one day venture in mystery novels. She has a weakness for coffee ice cream, tropical fruits and a good glass of wine.

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